The Unknown Child
by Kabien
Summary: Jessica has always wanted to know what had happened to her mother River Song. Now the mysterious man in the Blue Box, whom she has heard many stories of, has turned up and with him the first of many great adventures and maybe at last... some answers.


The Unknown Child

Written by Katie Bienvenue

~Prologue~

I grew up with my mother telling me tales of the Daft Man in the Blue Box. The box that was always bigger on the inside. She had loved him. I could always tell. When she spoke of him, she would light up. This man who she said she was never able to see in the right order. The man who I have never met.

Then one day, I was about four, she had taken me to the home of Rosalie Campbell. She told me that she had one more job that she had to do, and that she would be back for me soon. This job was at a Library someplace. She wouldn't say where. She never did. It was her way of protecting me, but from what?

Rosalie was a kind woman. Apparently she was a relative to my father. More secrets that neither would tell me. Just before she left, my mother knelt down in front of me. I remember twirling her extremely curly hair in between my fingers. They felt soft and were wild, sort of what my own hair would come to resemble. She looked at me with those greenish blue eyes, full of love and sorrow and worry.

"Sweetie. Remember what I told you about The Doctor?" She said. Her voice was calming. I remember always feeling safe at just the sound of it.

Of course I did. How could I have not? He was my hero in my dreams. The man who my mother had loved for all her life! Perhaps even more than my father. "Yes Mummy."

"If anything was to happen, remember what I told you?"

"To wait here until he comes for me. But Mummy, the Doctor always comes to save you on your adventures?"

She laughed at me and rapped me in her warm embrace. She didn't want to let go of me and I didn't want to let her go. This time was different for her, and I could sense it. "This is true, I was just testing your memory." She kissed my forehead and whispered, "I love you." into my ear. Rosalie had begun to pull me back into the house when I took one last look at the woman I called mother. Who others had known her simply as Professor River Song.

She didn't return from that trip. I had waited for months by the window. Looking out to see if she would appear, but she never did. At night I would tell myself the tales she had told me. At first they were a comfort, but as months turned into years that's all they came to be for me, just stories. Soon the stories stopped, and I had forgotten about that impossible man with the blue box. He faded from my life just as she did until soon both were just a piece of my subconsciousness.

Until now...

Chapter 1

Happy 18th Birthday Jessica

There's banging at the door. Inside is completely dark. The blinds have been drawn, and the blankets are covering a curled up lump in a large bed. There's more banging, "Jessica! Jessica, it's time to wake up!" The voice is muffled by the door, but it's easily recognizable as being from a woman.

The covers in the bed begin to move as a hand is exposed and hits the alarm clock that is clearly not the source of the sound. The pile of blankets moans.

"Jessica Susan Williams, you wake up right this minute before I come in there!"

"I'm awake!" Calls back a voice under the covers. The figure kicks the blankets off exposing a young woman barley eighteen. Her dark brown hair is full of enormously large curls. She answers the door in her pajamas and squints at the light in the hallway.

Standing in front of her in a floral dress is Rosalie. In the fourteen years that Jessica has lived with her the woman has not appeared to age. She still looks as if she is in her mid thirty's. Her hair is dark brown and done up into a french twist. Her skin is an olive color and her eyes are big and brown. Her arms are folded and she taps her foot. Something that she has done one too many times to Jessica, "You're going to be late."

"No I'm not! I'll just take the short cut." Jessica replies going over and opening the blinds. Outside is sunny. A surprisingly stunning sight for their area right outside London. She goes to her closet and starts flipping through her clothes.

"Please Jessica, of all days, please don't get into trouble today?" pleads Rosalie.

"Me?" Mocks Jessica, "I would never! Not when it's my birthday!"

"Good. Now get dressed and get down to the shop before Mr. Nightingale decides he wants to sack you!" Rosalie closes the door as she leaves Jessica to start changing.

The trip to work has been the same for Jessica for the past two years that she has worked at Sparrows and Nightingale, boring and completely uneventful. She would take the train into London and then the Tube to the park right near the shop. The walk through the park was always her favorite. She would think back to the times her mother would take her there and she would play on the statues.

Today she ran through the park without taking a moment to treasure the sight. She rounded the corner only a block away from the shop when she ran face first into a Constable. "Oh, sorry!" she said looking up to see the officer glaring down at her. He was certainly not pleased.

"And where are we off to in such a hurry today?" He asked.

"I'm late for work," she said scooting by him, "so if you wouldn't mind, I must be on my way." She placed a grin across her face as she took off in the direction of the store.

Sparrows and Nightingale had started off as a used book and DVD shop but has since switched to only DVDs. It still draws a respectable crowd. On good days they could have four to five times when the store would be packed. It was fun and easy work though, and Jessica loved it. She also really enjoyed the family that owned it.

Sometimes when it's a slow day, Jessica would sit at the counter and watch the people go by. She would stare into their faces and hope to see one that she would recognize. Sometimes a woman would walk by with curly hair like hers and she would perk up quickly with hopes that it could be the woman who had left her all those years ago. Sadly, it never was.

Today was not much different from the other days. She sat at her spot behind the counter flipping through a magazine, reading about the latest escapades of a celebrity. She would stretch and constantly look at the clock. Then she heard something. It was a very strange sound. Almost like wind fading in and out rapidly. She had no idea where the sound was coming from as it sounded like it was everywhere at the same time. She looked out the window. Nothing. She went into the back room. Nothing but boxed up DVD's and a ton of dust. There was a big bang from the side of the building.

Jessica ran out and around the corner. It lead to a little alleyway. She could she nothing that would cause the bang. All there was were trash cans along the sides. The sense of adventure boiled in her blood. She wanted to know what that noise was. She cautiously started to walk down the alley. She got half way and was about to give up when something out of the corner of her eye struck her. She turned and was facing a bright blue Police Box. Someone else would have disregarded it but the little four year old girl in her screamed for her to take a closer look.

"It can't be." she said taking a step closer. Her heart pounded in her chest. She reached out her hand and touched the blue wood. A chill ran down her spine. "You can't be real." she said in disbelief.

"Jessica!" She heard someone yell. It must have been form the shop. She didn't want to leave the blue box though. "Jessica!" she heard again.

"I'm coming!" She called back. She looked at the box, "Please don't disappear." She ran back to the store. The rest of the day she couldn't wait for her shift to be over so she can go and attempt to open the phone booth. Thoughts of her mother's stories had reawakened in her mind. Could the Police Box really exist? If so, did that mean that The Doctor was a real person? Could her mother be with him? But, why wouldn't she come back for her?

The chiming of Big Ben signaled that it was three o'clock in the afternoon, and the end of her shift. Before leaving her manager wished her a happy birthday and gave her a card. She tucked it into her bag and said that she would open it later. With a final good-bye she raced out the door and rounded the same corner as she had earlier. The blue box was gone. The glow that was in her face had begun to dim. If this was truly the police box from her mother's stories then it had done what her mother had said, it moved on.

Jessica got home and went up to her room. She didn't want to be bothered with anyone. She took out a photo of herself with her mother. It was taken shortly before she had disappeared. Jessica always thought that she was a very beautiful woman. She glared down at the old photograph. "Oh Mum... please don't say the stories are true." She is interrupted by a knock at the door.

Rosalie enters with a wrapped box. "I know that we're not doing gifts till dinner, but I wanted to give this to you now." She says as she sits next to Jessica on the bed. Jessica puts the photo back under her pillow and takes the wrapped box from Rosalie.

"What is it?" she asks.

"Well, it belonged to your mother. I thought she would want you to have it one day." Jessica tears off the wrapping paper to uncover a wooden jewelry box. She opens it. "These are little trinkets that your mother had collected on her travels." Jessica picks up a strange key with circular markings all over it. It's attached to a string. She puts it on. She holds it up to look more closely.

"I've never seen markings like these before. What are they?"

"Something Celtic perhaps?"

"This is certainly not Celtic." Jessica said examining the silver key around her neck.

Chapter 2

A Familiar Stranger Arrives

Jessica sits on a bench in the park during her break from work. It's been a couple of weeks since she last saw the blue box in the alley way. What was it her mother used to call it? A TARDIS? A pretty strange name, but then again a lot of her mother's stories were strange in their own way. Around her neck she wares the unknown key. She watches the people past by: some off to work, others running ariens, walking their dogs, or just out for a stroll.

"Boo, birthday girl!" A voice said to her right. She looks over and begins to laugh. Coming up the street is Rodger Sunderson, her best mate who must have just gotten back from his family's trip to Ireland. He is tall and lanky, and very much on the geeky side.

"You're two weeks late there Rodger!" She said giving him a hug.

"Yeah, well... Mum had me constantly with my aunt and uncle. I did get you something though!" He pulls out a small wrapped box and hands it to her. She takes it exposing a huge leather cuff bracelet. He notices it right away and takes her arm to look at it more closely. "Wow, what's that?" he exclaims.

Jessica looks down at it. "I don't really know. Rosalie had given me this trunk with items that were my mothers and this was in it! I think it's a watch or something but it just keeps showing these same numbers!" She opens the cuff and shows a number pad in it.

"Whoa! Can I try it on?"

She laughs again, "No!" and pulls back her arm.

He looks disappointed but then he looks at the key around her neck. "What's that?" He holds the key in his hand.

"Like I said, I don't know. Mummy sure loved her secrets!" She said looking down at the strange key.

"Look at the markings on it. What do they mean?"

"I wish I knew. They're like nothing I've ever seen before. I've been working on trying to find out where they're from but no luck." She looks to her watch on her other hand, "I should be getting back. Are you going to come over later to tell me about your trip?"

"Yeah!" he hugs her, "I'll see you later!"

Jessica walks slowly back to work to spend more hours just sitting and staring at the clock. Now though she could play with the new gadget around her wrist. As she walks she starts to feel a warmness against her neck. She stops and places her hand on the key around her neck. It has a slight burning feeling to it. She pulls it off and looks down at it. It glows magnificently. "What the?" she thought to herself. She looks up and sees a blue phone box, very much like the one from the alley, sitting right on the corner of the pathway next to another bench.

She begins to walk towards it. She stops as her hearts begins to skip beats. The door opens and a funny looking man in suite and bow tie steps out. His dark hair is all askew, he attempts to fix it as he shuts the doors and locks it. Jessica looks closely at the key he uses, it's the same as the one glowing in her hand. She quickly shoves the key into her jeans pocket and watches the man leave. Once he is clear away from her, she sneaks over to the blue Police Box.

It towers over her and all her feelings from the other week come rolling back to her. She touches the wood and it sends a cold shiver down her spine. She pulls the key out of her pocket, it glows even brighter as if it is drawn to the Police box. She places the key into key hole and turns it. She hears a "Click!" as the door unlocks. Jessica holds her breath as she pushes open the door.

Her face goes white at the sight before her. The room inside the booth is gigantic and very alien. The ceiling is high above the raised platform. There's many pathways that branch off for what seems to be the main control room. In the middle of the room is a sort of control booth with lots of odds and ends that appear to be knobs.

The sight is too much for Jessica and she runs out of the phone booth slamming the door behind her. Her heart races as she backs up into someone. She turns around to quickly apologize. "I'm sorry," she says turning around. She stops when she notices that the man she is talking to is the same man that had walked out of the blue box.

Up close he looked young, but there was something about his eyes that looked awfully familiar to her. "What are you doing?" He asked. Jessica was dumbfounded. She took off running to the shop. She didn't care if the man followed her or if he knew that she was inside his ship. "It had to be a space ship!" she thought, "How else could it be bigger on the inside?" She suddenly realized that she had forgotten something. She rounded the corner, the DVD shop in her sights, when she stopped. Her necklace, her mother's necklace, she had forgotten it. What if he found it? What would he do?

She thought about it all through out dinner that night. She wanted to ask Rosalie about him since she had been close to her mother. She sat across eating her dinner and constantly looking at Rosalie. "Rosalie, is the Doctor real?" she imagined herself asking. She could see the look that she would give, "Of course he's not." Jessica decided against it, but Rosalie could tell that something was wrong with her.

"Jessica, how was work today?" She asked.

"It was fine." Jessica replied.

"Nothing exciting then?"

"Nope. Same boring day." Jessica said stuffing her face faster. Soon the plate in front of her was clean, "Rodger is going to be coming over soon. He got back from Ireland today." Before Rosalie could answer Jessica ran off to her room.

The doorbell rung around eight that night. Jessica opened the door to Rodger standing in front of her. "You are a sight for sore eyes!" she said letting him in. They run up to her room and she closes the door behind her. "You will not believe what happened today!" She exclaimed as she pushed him to sit down.

"What?" He asked. Rodger has been Jessica's closest friend for as long as she had been living with Rosalie. She could trust him with everything, and she had told him plenty of times about her mother's stories.

"They're all true!"

"What's true?" He has become even more confused.

Jessica begins to paces back and forth. "My mother's stories. They're all true. Evey single last one of them!"

"How? They're about space travel and stuff you would see on the telly?"

"I saw it Rodger! I saw the blue box! And I saw _him!"_

"You saw the Doctor?"

"Yes!" She said collapsing onto the bed next to him. "He was in the park! Right after I had left you, I was going back to the shop when my key necklace started to glow! Then I saw it! Right there in front of me just like before! Oh, it was magnificent!"

"Before? You've seen it before?"

"On my birthday! I was working and I heard a noise so I decided to go check it out. There it was, parked in the alley way. When I had gone back after I was done with work it was gone. Then today this happened!"

"Man, and I thought me going to Ireland would be our tale of the night?" He joked.

"Rodger- the inside was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"You went inside!" He exclaimed.

"Well, what is a curious girl to do?" she said defending herself! "But it was so beautiful inside! My mother had always said that at first sight that ship could take your breathe away, but i never actually believed her. But finding myself in there today was something else! I felt so close to her!"

"So, did you talk to him?"

The smile drained from Jessica's face. "No. I got too frightened and just ran off."

"But Jessica... he might know where your mother went."

"You think I don't know that?" She yelled, "That's been running through my head all day! I may never see him again and I blew my only chance to ask!"

Suddenly, there's a tap at her window. Both of them look over to see a man standing outside it. Jessica's eyes widen at the fact that it is the Doctor. "What?" she exclaims.

Chapter 3

Doctor...Who?

"Well, are you going to let me in? It's kind of rude letting someone stand outside a window like this." The Doctor exclaimed.

Jessica walked over, still completely in shock. The Doctor flashes a huge grin to her and points to the bottom of the window. He looks like a little school boy with his big flippy hair, bow tie and suspenders. When she opens the window she is still completely shocked.

"Why, hello." he says climbing in. He doesn't waste any time. "You!" he says pointing at Jessica, "You were in my TARDIS!" He walks up and glares in her face. "How did you get in?" He starts to pace the room. "Cause I remember locking the door. I put the key in and I turned it. So how did you get in?" He suddenly notices Rodger's existence on Jessica's bed, "Oh, this is very rude of me. I'm the Doctor."

Jessica's eyes grow from both shock and excitement. "I can't believe it! You're here!"

The Doctor quickly looks back to her, "Excuse me? Of course I'm here, I would like to know how someone like you could possibly get into _my_ TARDIS!"

"It's hard to explain."

"I've got plenty of time." The Doctor said taking a seat on a trunk in the corner. He crossed his legs, and arms, and sits up straight preparing himself for how ever long it would take. Jessica watched him, wondering where to begin.

Jessica cleared her throat, "Well," she said as she started to pace the room, "when I was a little girl my mother told me stories about this man she had met with a funny blue box."

The Doctor begins to look around the room, she was losing his attention. He admired a room like this, full of little trinkets and drawings. Then something caught his attention on the nightstand. There, laying under the lamp is a leather wristband.

"I never thought that any of her stories could actually be true! I mean, they're about time travel and space..." Jessica continued. Suddenly, the Doctor stands up and crosses the room to her mantel. "I thought you wanted to know how I got in?"

The Doctor picks up the wristband and examines it. He knows at first glance what it is but how did this girl have it, he thought. He gives the girl another close look. She doesn't appear to know what she has in her possession. "This," he says to her, "is a vortex manipulator. How did you come to have it?"

"It belonged to my mother. Why? What does it do?" She asks stepping closer to him. She stops as he takes something out of his tweed jacket and points it at her. It makes a strange sound as it glows green. It's scanning her. He finishes and reads the results.

"That's strange." He says a little less comforting then Jessica would have liked.

"What's strange?" she asks.

He looks up from his sonic screwdriver, "It says that there is an alien life-form here, but your readings come out normal, and it doesn't count me."

"But," Jessica says staring at him, "we're the only ones in here... except..." They both look to the bed where Rodger had been sitting. He glares at them both with a devilish smile. He rises from his spot and quickly cranks his neck to the side staring at the Doctor, "Hello Doctor. You've seem to have changed since we last met." His voice is a lot darker.

"Rodger, what's wrong with you?" Jessica asks.

He cranks his neck towards her, "You silly silly little child. You have no idea do you?"

"No idea about what?" she asks.

"You were my ticket to seeing the Doctor again." explained Rodger. He looks back to the Doctor. "It's been a very long time Doctor. I've learn to be more human with all those years of watching them behind that scarecrow mask! Them and their silly little ways."

"Jessica stand behind me." The Doctor says continuing to eye Rodger in front of him. Jessica does as she is told. "Son of Mine, how did you get free? You were in a time lock?"

"Ah, I'm not going to tell you Doctor. Let me just say this though, I've had of time to think about my family's revenge on you Doctor, and I am please to finally be able to do it!"

"Why did you pick her?" The Doctor asks.

Rodger lets out a horrible laugh. One that even Jessica has never heard before. "Even though I couldn't interact with the world around me I could still see what was going on around me. One day, I watched as this mother and daughter held a picnic not to far away. It made me sick to watch their happiness, but then I overheard her tell her daughter a story about a man that went on crazy adventures. She said your name... Doctor, and I knew that this was my first step. Find this girl and stay as close as I can to her, and look what happened?"

"But we were friends! I trusted you!" Yelled Jessica.

Rodger lets out another menacing laugh. "And how very easy it was too! Once Mummy went away and you were left all alone."

"But I remember you when we were younger? How could I have those memories?" Jessica went on.

"He must have planted them in your head." The Doctor answered.

Son of Mine claps his hands together, "Very good Doctor."

"Son of Mine, I had given your family a chance to leave those many years ago and you didn't take it. What happened to them is not my fault."

"But it is!" He screams. He starts to move closer to the Doctor. "And now I can have my revenge!" He pulls out a laser pistol from his coat and aims it at the Doctor and Jessica.

"Hold on tight to me." The Doctor whispers to Jessica. He can feel her grab hold of his jacket. He flips open the vortex manipulator and hits a button. Just as the laser from Son of Mine's gun is about to hit them they are gone.

Chapter 4

Time for An Explanation

The Doctor and Jessica appear in the middle of a park. It is already night out and the street lights illuminate the sidewalks as couples and dog walkers go for nightly strolls. Jessica lets go of the Doctor as soon as she knows that she is on solid ground. "What the hell was that?" she exclaimed now out of breath.

"Don't worry, that effect happens to everyone their first trip. Just walk around a bit. You'll be fine." the Doctor explained, taking out his sonic screwdriver and scanning the area. "We should be alright for right now."

"What happened to Rodger?" she yelled. Her emotions were finally catching up to the current moment. "He literally changed right in front of me!"

"That wasn't Rodger. It never was." The Doctor read the readings on his sonic. He knew where they had been transported to and it was perfect. "Ah ha!" He looks over to Jessica, "Follow me." He takes of running down the sidewalk. Jessica trails closely behind him.

They turn a corner to see more trees and benches. "Where are we?" exclaimed Jessica struggling to keep up with the Doctor.

"Not far now!" called back The Doctor.

Jessica's heart was pounding fast and faster. it was almost a rhythm as her feet hit the sidewalk and her lungs filled with air. They rounded another corner. "Doctor!" she called out, "Can we stop for a moment?"

"It's just a bit farther." The Doctor called back. He didn't even sound the least bit out of breath.

Finally they stopped in a very familiar place to Jessica. It was the same park that she had been in today for her break. The same park that she always walks through to get to work. There, near the last bench, sat the TARDIS. She was completely out of breath. "Doctor," she struggled to get the words out, "do you have two sets of lungs or something? How are you even able to run this whole time and not feel exhausted?"

The Doctor is shocked by the question. He has never been asked this before. He plunges into his pocket and pulls out his key. Jessica watches him unlock the door when she remembers that her key had been left behind.

They enter into the control room and the Doctor rushes over to the scanner. "Ok, first we need to know where Son of Mine went." he said. He runs his hand through his hair out of frustration, "But how did he get out of that Time Lock? There's no possible way he could have gotten out. I made sure of that."

"Doctor?" Jessica asked as she watch him contemplate the thought. "This afternoon when I showed Rod..." she stopped herself. Rodger was no longer in existence, instead it was this new creature, "Son of Mine had this very strange urning to see my mother's wristband, the..." She struggles to remember what the Doctor had called it, "Vortex manipulator?"

The Doctor quickly spins around to face her. "Was he now?"

"Yes," Jessica said as she joined him near the control panel, "I didn't let him but there was something in his eyes that looked mad, and not angry mad but crazy mad." Being up close to the control panel sent chills running through her. She was actually living one of her mother's adventures. "Wow, she was right about this place." Jessica said without realizing that she was saying it out loud. "She said that it could open your mind to new things."

The Doctor heard her and gave her a look that was both confused and wondering. He wanted to ask her the question burning in his head but decided against it. For right now at least. Instead he directed himself back at the problem in hand. "Alright, so Son of Mine wanted a Vortex Manipulator? What for?"

"Well what does it do?" Jessica asked looking at her mother's that was now around the Doctor's wrist.

"It allows one to travel through time and space." The Doctor's eyes grow wide as he finishes his sentence. He knows. He knows what Son of Mine wanted with the wristband. he smacks his head with his hand, "Oh why didn't I see it sooner? Of course! How could I have been so thick?" He turns to Jessica, who is just watching him, "He wanted the Vortex Manipulator so he could go back and get his family."

"Well we have it, so that's a good thing." Jessica replied. It accrues to her something very important that she had forgotten about till right now. Her eyes widen and the color drains from her face, "Doctor?" The Doctor looks to her. She is completely frozen, "We left him alone in the house."

"Yes." he answered, not really thinking too much of it.

She shakes herself out of her shock. She grabs him by the collar, "We left him alone in the house!"

"Yes, I know this already."

"We have to get back there now!" she commanded. The Doctor had no clue why, but she did. Rosalie was still in the house.

Chapter 5

The Fall

Before the TARDIS could fully re materialize, Jessica had opened the door, jumped out,and ran toward the house screaming Rosalie's name. She halted as she saw that the front door had been left open. Jessica slowly pushed the door and looked inside. "Rosalie?" She called from the entrance. Her voice was shaky. There was no answer. She walks in.

There appeared to have been a struggle in the parlor. The coffee table was pushed over and the book shelf was smashed as if someone was thrown into it. The debris lays scattered across the floor. Jessica's breath began to catch, and she finds it extremely hard to breathe.

She runs up the stairs to Rosalie's room, but it is empty. "Rosalie?" she calls again. There is still no answer. The tears begin to well up in her eyes as she can feel her stomach knotting more and more. "Rosalie! Rosalie! Rosalie!" She keeps repeating going from room to room with no answer back.

She goes back to the main hall. The Doctor has entered looking at the disaster room that was formally known as the parlor. She doesn't look at him as she walks over to the couch and sits down. The tears now roll off her cheeks at a rapid rate. "She was right about you, you know!" Jessica manages to get out.

The Doctor looks at her in wonder. This child clearly knows something that he does not. He walks over and picks up a broken photo from the ground. It's of a middle aged woman with a young girl with overalls and dark brown frizzy hair; who could be no more than eight.

"She had warned me that you could bring both the bad and the good! I didn't want to believe her, but I guess I was wrong." Jessica continues on. Her hands hold up her tear stained face. "What is he going to do with her?"

"I don't know" replied the Doctor. He has seen his companions go through many things and he hated having to just let it happen.

"Don't say that!" She barked back. She whipped her nose with her sleeve and glared at him. "Don't you dare say that!" There is a directness in her voice that scares the Doctor. "If that's what he wants," she points to the Doctor's wrist where the Vortex Manipulator still remained, "then he'll have to come get it from us." Jessica rises from her spot on the couch and paces back and forth, "Isn't there a way we can track where he is? I mean, he had a bloody laser gun, it's not like you can buy those things right in a back lot somewhere." She quickly looks up to him, "Can you?" She goes back to pacing, throwing the idea of an alien black market out of her head. "Is there any way we can have the TARDIS track him down? Trace where he might have gone?"

"There might be a way. He said that he had been watching you and waiting for me, right?" The Doctor replied.

"Yeah." Jessica answered.

"Alright Jessica, was there something he gave you recently? A piece of jewelry or something?" The Doctor asked, staring intensively at her.

Jessica began to think back to the past few hours. The moment in the park begins to replay in her mind. "There was a box that he had given me today right before he commented on my wristband!" She looks at the Doctor, "I haven't opened it yet."

"Go get it." Ordered the Doctor. Jessica runs off and arrives back shortly with the small box that Son of Mine had given to her earlier in the day. She hands it to the Doctor. He opens it up to expose a pretty silver bracelet with a bright blue stone in the middle that almost looks like sea glass. "Oh, this is pretty." The Doctor said examining it.

"Man, if that wasn't from some evil alien who had tired to kill me, I would totally love it!" Jessica slipped out. The Doctor gives her a quick look. "What? I would. I'm a good friend. I'm not rude!"

The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and scans the bracelet. He lights us as he reads what the scan has come out with. "It may very well be our lucky day!" He tosses the bracelet to Jessica, "That my dear, is a tracking device. It allows our friend to see where and what you might be doing."

"Just great." She says looking at the bracelet, "So does this mean that we can find him?" The Doctor nodes in response and races out the door. Jessica follows a few feet behind. They enter the TARDIS. "Give me the bracelet!" The Doctor calls out. Jessica tosses it to him, "What are you going to do?"

The Doctor takes out his sonic screwdriver and uses it to open the blue jewel that turns out to be the control panel. He plugs it into the TARDIS control panel. "I'm going to redirect the signals from your bracelet to it's source." It connects. "Yes!" The Doctor begins to type in coordinates and pulls a leaver. Before Jessica can ask her next big question the TARDIS is off.

The ride is doesn't know wither to be scared, worried, or just to let the adventure take over. "Doctor?" she says holding onto the control panel. "What exactly are we going to do?"

"Oh? Well, I haven't quite figured that part out yet." The Doctor confessed. He runs his fingers through his hair again, "But I will promise that we will get your guardian back." Jessica flashes him a smile and enjoys the rest of the bumpy ride because she is afraid to know what is to come once the ride ends.

Chapter 6

Choices

There was a jolt that could only symbolize one thing, the TARDIS had landed. This was it, Jessica thought to herself. She looked over to the Doctor who seemed to be calculating something on the screen. She had no idea if he had a plan or if he was just going to be running in blind. "Doctor?" she asked.

He looked up as though she had broken his concentration on something.

"What's going to happen?"

The Doctor, who had been wearing his glasses, let them fall to the tip of his nose as he explained, "We'll, we're not going to allow Son of Mine to get a hold of the Vortex Manipulator so we'll leave that in here. As for the chap himself," The Doctor looked back up to the screen, "I may have found a way to place him back into the time loop."

Jessica circled around to take a look at the screen, but all she saw on the screen were a bunch of numbers and circles. "What's that suppose to mean, it's all just circles?"

"It's Gallifreyan. It's the language of my people." explained the Doctor. He turned around and faced her.

"Your people?" she asked bewildered for a moment. "You really aren't human, are you?"

"I'm Timelord. The last of them. That's all you really need to know right now." He faced the screen again, "In order for this to work I'll need to be able to get him to wear something. That way I can program it to go off just as he puts it on and bam, he's back in his prison where he belongs."

Jessica walks over to the control panel. "But Doctor, the only think we both know that he will want to have is this!" She picks up the Vortex Manipulator and holds it up, "And we can't actually give it to him?"

He enlightens with a burst of energy, grabbing the wrist band from Jessica and opening it up. "Of course we can!" Jessica looks on completely baffled by his sudden change. "We can rewire it so that when he tries to use it, it doesn't take him to where he wants to go. Instead, it will take him to where he belongs. The Prisons of the Shadow Proclamation and then the Judoon can deal with him. And if he tries to use it to go anywhere else, it will automatically send him right back. It's brilliant! If I so say so myself."

Jessica chuckles, "You're bonkers. I like it." It occurs to her that she would lose the only surviving piece of her mother though and her happiness slightly leaves her. "So, there's no way I would be able to have that once he's gone?" she says slowly trying to hid her feelings. It fails and her voice sounds somewhat raspy from holding back the sorrow she feels. "Is there?"

The Doctor looks at the wrist band and then to the young girl. He walks up and places his hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry Jessica, but no."

"No, it's ok! I mean, we're saving the world and that's what's important." She forces a smile on her face.

"We're also saving your guardian."

"Yeah." Jessica said. Her mind went back to her mother's stories. She knew that she would have done the same thing. "So, what are we waiting for? Better get to work Space Man!"

The Doctor flashed her a quick look. For a moment he saw not Jessica standing before him, but a very old friend. Someone who had called him that many times in the past. Someone who the universe still continued to sing songs for and he knew as Donna Noble.

Rosalie sat in a chair, tied up and gaged. The room around her looked like something from an alien movie. There were strange wires hanging all down from the ceiling and in front of her a giant control panel full of lights and different buttons. Standing at the control panel is Son of Mine watching something in a little built in monitor.

"Well, well, well, it looks like our guest have arrived. I knew he wouldn't be able to stay away. Not when his little companion's loved one in here with me." He said turning around. There was a darkness and madness in his eyes. "Soon, I'll have back everything that was ours and I'll kill that pathetic Doctor like we almost did those many years ago!"

"Wow, pathetic? Really? I thought I put up a fair fight last time." a voice said coming from the darkness. The Doctor stepped out with Jessica at his side. He looked at her, "Did you think I was pathetic?"

"Well, you did kind of run?" Jessica answered.

"Oi, he was the one who pointed the gun at us!" The Doctor chimed in. "I don't think it was quite fair. I didn't get the memo that I was going to be invited to a gun battle. Well, I did, but that was back in the 1800's. Billie the Kid, by the way, terrible shot!"

"Excuse me?" Son of Mine interrupted.

The Doctor popped back into the current moment leaving Jessica to chuckle a little. "Oh sorry. Life of a time traveler, so many tales to tell. Where was I? Oh yes. You wanted this!" He held up the Vortex Manipulator. At the sight Son of Mine's eyes widened. The Doctor's voice suddenly went serious, "You can have it under two conditions. You let that woman go and you head my warning. Get off this planet and forget about returning to it. I'm giving you this last chance Son of Mine."

"That's it?" Son of Mine asked. "That's to easy?"

"I'm a man of my word." The Doctor replied. "Let her go, and I'll let you go."

They eyed each other for a few seconds. Waiting to make sure that the other wouldn't change their mind and try something dirty. Son of Mine slowly formed a devilish grin on his face and raised his hand to the control panel that he stood next to. Jessica kept her eyes on Rosalie. His hand went down on a button and Rosalie's hands were released. Jessica rushed over to her and helped undo the gag around her mouth.

"Ok Doctor. I've kept my end, now you need to keep yours."

"And I will." The Doctor held up the leather wristband and tossed it over to him.

Rosalie gasped, "Doctor, what are you doing?" Jessica glanced at Rosalie. The way she had said that sounded as if she had known him.

Son of Mine bent down and picked up the wrist watch. He started to laugh uncontrollably. "Oh Doctor, you really are very easy to trick, aren't you?" He began to place it on his own wrist. "You really think that I was going to just walk away? Thank you Doctor. Thank you for playing right into this little game." He tapped out a number on the key pad and before the Doctor or anyone else could react he was gone.

Rosalie got up and stormed over to him, "What's going to happen Doctor? You need to go after him!"

He gave her one of his whimsical smiles and she caught on as if she had seen it before, "You did something to that Vortex Manipulator, didn't you?"

Jessica listened in. How did Rosalie know what it was? She hadn't mentioned anything to her? Could Son of Mine have? "How did you kno..."

Before she could get out the sentience the Doctor grinned, "Of course I did. Now our friend will enjoy a lovely prison sentence by the Judoon." He took a quick look around before continuing, "Now, time to get you two home."

The TARDIS materializes in their back yard. The door opens and all three step out. "It's the best place to land." The Doctor says shutting the door behind him. Rosalie holds Jessica in a tight hug as he stands and faces them. He fixes his tweed jacket. "So," he continues, "I guess this is good bye."

Jessica doesn't want it to be. She has so many questions for him. Most importantly, he knew her mother and must know what happened to her. "Wait!" she calls out as he turns to leave.

"Jessica?" Rosalie asks.

The Doctor turns around. She steps forward with a grin on her face. Her mother's last words running through her mind, when the Doctor comes, you must go with him. "Can I go with you?"

"With me?" He looks over to Rosalie, who is actually taking it surprisingly well. He looks back to Jessica, "It's dangerous?"

"I don't mind." she casually said.

"You could get hurt?"

"I've been hurt plenty of times in my past."

The Doctor looked her over as if he was sizing her up. Who was this girl, he asked himself. She knew way to much to be just another person. "Very well." He said, "You can come. If it's ok with your Guardian." He turned to Rosalie.

"Traveling with you is a once in a life time experience, she shouldn't miss it for the world." She replied. "Can I just have a moment?"

"Oh, of course." said the Doctor, "I'll just be in the TARDIS." He turned, opened the door, and disappeared inside.

Rosalie turned to Jessica. "You're sure you want to do this?"

"More than anything."

Rosalie smiled, "Ok. Please be careful."

"I will." Jessica promised. "Oh, Aunt Rosalie, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"How did you know that it was a Vortex Manipulator?"

Rosalie stared into the wondering eyes of Jessica. She knew it was time. "Your mother had traveled with the Doctor a very long time. She also was able to obtain certain... items along the way. You can never tell the Doctor who she was."

"Why?"

"It would break his heart."

Jessica agreed. She gave Rosalie one final hug, this time squeezing her as tightly as she could and headed toward the TARDIS to experience the adventures just waiting out there, and more importantly... to uncover what had really happened to her mother.


End file.
